Misc education: Monarch caterpillar to butterfly

[limniade]

When I was a kid, my sister and I used to catch monarch caterpillars and raise them into butterflies. This isn't tough at all, and it was really cool to watch the transformation process. Well, I found two caterpillars about a week or so ago while biking, and I thought I'd document the whole process in photos.

Raising a caterpillar:

If you happen to catch one and want to bring it home, this is what you'll need.

1. A place to keep it. It should be a large enough space to let them have some freedom of movement, but secure so they can't crawl out. A coffee can with holes poked in the lid for air will work, or one of those $5 terrariums. Use something that's easy to clean, because you'll want to rinse it out on a daily basis.

2. A fresh supply of milkweed.



Monarch caterpillars eat this. The larger, and closer they get to cocooning, the more they'll eat. You should look for healthy plants without yellow leaves, and have enough so that you can get fresh leaves on a daily basis.

3. A couple sticks. Monarchs usually hang their cocoons from an elevated area. When they hatch, they also need something to dangle from so their wings dry correctly. Make sure your sticks provide several inches of clearance, but don't allow your caterpillars to escape.

How to recognize a monarch caterpillar:



They have black, yellow and white stripes, and antennae on both ends. The front ones are longer, while the back ones are actually meant to fool predators. You can find them hanging out on the underside of milkweed leaves. Mature caterpillars are about 2-3" long, but sometimes you can find tiny ones too.

Once you've caught a caterpillar and have it safely ensconced in your container, all you need to do is rinse the container out once a day, and feed it fresh milkweed leaves daily. Caterpillars spin silk in order to provide a climbing surface, so keep an eye out for that if they're trying to get out.

When a caterpillar is getting ready to cocoon, it will turn slightly greenish. It'll find a place to dangle from, and hang upside down in a J position.



One of my caterpillars hung from a milkweed leaf. The other isn't ready to cocoon quite yet in this photo. But a couple days later, it was ready! Apparently it felt the leaf was taken, and escaped a couple times to find a handy spot on my piano and bookcase. After being returned, it decided that it could do just as well on a leaf.

You can see the first caterpillar's cocoon in the top left corner.



Look closely at its back end. You can see how it's a little transparent, because it's just beginning to shed its skin.



By the next morning, the second caterpillar had almost completed the cocooning process, and its shed skin was lying next to it. You can just see how the stripes in the caterpillar form the cocoon.



A monarch's cocoon (or chrysalis, for the more accurate term, but "cocoon" is shorter to type) is sea-green and has these beautiful metallic gold flecks along the top, and scattered along the surface. I have no idea how this color originates, since it's not part of the caterpillar's body, nor part of the mature butterfly's. Nature is creative, I guess.



See that row of gold and black near the top? That's actually a seam where the mature butterfly will hatch from the cocoon.

[limniade]

A chrysalis takes about 10-12 days to mature, and as it does, it becomes more and more transparent. The first caterpillar is about a week along, and you can see the butterfly wings inside. Notice the gold flecks.



The second caterpillar was a couple days behind the first one, but its cocoon is beginning to turn transparent, too. It's a little flat on one side because it's lying on the bottom instead of hanging, but that won't affect the butterfly.



I'll post more pictures as the process continues.

[SecondSucks]

We did this in 2nd grade as a class project. ya'rly

[limniade]

Yeah, but it's still fun!

[Mises]

nice tits baby (na rly)(no fakeboob fan)(no hate though)(nudez or negs)

[2 HUGE]

wow thats pretty cool

are you going to release the butterfly into the wild when youre done, lol

I went to a conservatory not too long ago and it was actually pretty cool, haha

I thought it was just going to be a bunch of butterflies flying around, and it was, but they were cool butterflies


LOL slug

[bigg_K]

are you gonna take pics when it becomes a butterfly?



Random: How does one "train" to be a cougar?

[limniade]

Go ahead, slug, neg me.

Yep, I'll let them go when they've hatched. I actually did this a couple years ago too, and one of the cocoons I had hatched right in my hand as I watched. That was the coolest thing ever, and I tried to get photos of it, but they all turned out blurry. So I'm hoping to repeat the event and get better pictures this time.

[SecondSucks]

Originally Posted by konradac

are you gonna take pics when it becomes a butterfly?



Random: How does one "train" to be a cougar?

i watched a big ass hornet pwn a locust the other day it was fuking epic

[Mises]

Originally Posted by konradac

Random: How does one "train" to be a cougar?

yeah, i don't get that either! I mean, really all you have to basically do is go after a young guy and close to 100% of them will be more than happy to bang you

[limniade]

It's just a joke, Jesus. That'd be like me asking you when I can expect to see you battling to the death in the Coliseum.

[Kane_89]

I was attacked by a gang of horned caterpillars at a picnic when I was 8.

They fell out of the tree, on the ground, coming from all sides. (serious)

do you know what those are called?

[limniade]

That sounds kind of like army worms, but I have yet to meet a caterpillar I couldn't outrun. Still pretty gross, though. At least monarchs just hang out on plants.

[Kane_89]

Originally Posted by limniade

That sounds kind of like army worms, but I have yet to meet a caterpillar I couldn't outrun. Still pretty gross, though. At least monarchs just hang out on plants.

NO!..you dont understand lady...these caterpillars were not of this world,

they were fast, very fast, and very determined to do something bad to me.

it has been puzzling me for the last 11 yrs...(what did they want?)

They fell out of the fu*king trees!!

(no psycho)

[bigg_K]

Originally Posted by limniade

It's just a joke, Jesus. That'd be like me asking you when I can expect to see you battling to the death in the Coliseum.

was gonna see if you needed a training buddy


where would one find such a catepillar? I guess it depends on the climate and location...I have never seen one here. I wonder if I can buy a couple and give this a shot...lol.

Originally Posted by Kane_89

NO!..you dont understand lady...these caterpillars were not of this world,

they were fast, very fast, and very determined to do something bad to me.

it has been puzzling me for the last 11 yrs...(what did they want?)

They fell out of the fu*king trees!!

(no psycho)

sounds like

[MiscLyfe]

Nature can be pretty disgusting.

[limniade]

You might be out of luck this year, since they're usually cocooning now. Essentially, you should look in some fairly remote fields (i.e. not in parks or high-traffic areas) for healthy milkweed stands in sunny areas. (Milkweed grows in the shade, but I've never found caterpillars in shady spots.) The leaves should be broad and the plants should be healthy and green, not blighted.

Look on the underside of the leaf near the bottom of the plant. You can just grab the top of the plant and bend it over to scan the undersides.

[Smooth23]

I got a bunch of milkweed plants around my place, and have seen a couple monarchs lately. I'm gonna go out tomorrow and see if I can find some of these bad boys. I never knew they ate milkweed, I always thought it was poisoness to pretty much everything.

[SecondSucks]

Originally Posted by Smooth23

I got a bunch of milkweed plants around my place, and have seen a couple monarchs lately. I'm gonna go out tomorrow and see if I can find some of these bad boys. I never knew they ate milkweed, I always thought it was poisoness to pretty much everything.

thats why they eat it. nothing else can

[limniade]

Yep, monarch caterpillars are actually poisonous! The viceroy caterpillar is a copycat for that reason--its caterpillars look very similiar, but the stripes are in the reverse order. (More black, less yellow, plus they don't eat milkweed.)

[limniade]

The first cocoon is really close to hatching! I'm going to put my camera on the tripod and keep an eye on it--maybe it'll hatch today.



And the second cocoon isn't far behind, either!

[limniade]

The first butterfly hatched while I was at the office for a couple hours. I was disappointed to miss the actual hatching, but the butterfly was fluttering its wings when I came home!





He was rarin' to go, so I put him outside on my balcony to hang onto my lounge, and after about an hour, he flew away. Bye, butterfly!

I put the second cocoon in plain sight and set up the camera, then decided I'd risk getting some dinner. The two caterpillars were a day apart in cocooning, so I thought I'd have a few hours of leeway.

[limniade]

I was wrong. I came home an hour later, and the butterfly had hatched, but was stuck on his back! I rescued him and let him crawl up my arm. His wings were still damp.









I put Butterfly #2 on the lampshade (fluorescent bulb, he won't get burned) so he could dangle and dry his wings, but I'm concerned. I don't know how long the butterfly was stuck on his back, and if they don't dangle right away, their wings dry rumpled up, and they can't fly. I fear this might be the case with this little guy.



I'll let him hang there for a while and see if the situation improves.

I'm bummed that I missed BOTH of them hatching! Damn! I was only gone a short time. Oh well--nature doesn't wait for the photo op.

[JACKIECHANFAN]

I hate bugs in general; they just freak me out.